A spate of allegations of intimacyual wrongdoing has rocked the film industry in India’s southern state of Kerala, triggering a flood of police cases and guideing to calls for a wideer reckoning wilean what is understandn as Mollywood.
The tardyst wave of the #MeToo shiftment, which first took off in 2017, erupted after the findings of an inquiry – into publishs faced by men and women in the film industry – readyd by a rulement-nominateed panel understandn as the Hema Committee, were unveiled on August 19. The tell unveiled rampant intimacyual misparticipate aextfinishedside other toilplace violations agetst women who toil in the Malayalam film industry. Malayalam is the dominant language of Kerala.
Sexual dangers is “the worst evil” faced by women in the industry, the tell, which spans more than 200 pages, shelp.
So, what’s happening in Malayalam cinema, what does the tell say, and what’s next?
Why was the Hema Committee set up?
In February 2017, an actress was seizeed and intimacyupartner aggressioned by a group of men in a car when she was commuting in Kerala, which sits on India’s southern Malabar coast. The men sign uped a video of the aggression.
In response to this incident, 18 women from the Malayalam film industry came together under the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC). Malayalam actor Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan – better understandn by his stage name Dileep – was arrested in July 2017 for allegedly orchestrating the aggression. He was freed on bail after three months. The court is still hearing the case.
Al Jazeera emailed Dileep’s lawyer, Raman Pillai, seeking responses to definite inquires pertaining to the allegations agetst the actor, and those in the Hema Committee tell. Pillai has not reacted.
In November 2017, acting on an pguide from the WCC, the state rulement of Kerala set uped the three-member Hema Committee tasked with set upateigating publishs faced by women and men toiling in the industry. The pledgetee compelevated reweary Kerala High Court Justice K Hema, createer actor Sharada and reweary bureaucrat KB Valsala Kumari.
The pledgetee accumulateed insights from male and female actors, originateup artists, cinematographers and other crew thraw online surveys and in-person intersees. Videos, screensboilings and pboilingos as potential evidence were also accumulateed. Additionpartner, a member of the pledgetee visited the shooting of a film freed in 2019. This was done to study the environment on a film set.
What is the Hema Committee tell?
In tardy 2019, the pledgetee createted its tell to the state rulement. In tardy August 2024, a redacted version was made disclose, with the names of all victims and offfinishers deleted.
The tardy free of the tell was criticised by opposition politicians including Shashi Tharoor, a parliamentarian from the Congress party, who shelp in August: “It is utterly dishonorable and shocking that the rulement sat on this tell for csurrfinisherly five years now”.
The rulement shelp the tell’s free was procrastinateed becaparticipate it holded caring alertation. “Justice Hema had written to the rulement on February 19, 2020, urging that the tell not be freed due to the caring nature of the alertation,” Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was quoted saying by local media in August.
Yet even with details withheld, the tell led to shockwaves atraverse India becaparticipate of what it findlooked.
“It’s not fair telling on intimacyual presentility, it shows power equations of the industry, other benevolents of violations appreciate bias misparticipate and retribution,” shelp J Devika, a feminist academic from Kerala.
What were the tell’s key findings?
- “Denial of human rights to women in cinema”: On disjoinal film sets, women do not have access to changing rooms or toilets. This, the tell set up, caparticipates health publishs including urinary tract infections, and women on set “have landed up in hospitals on some occasions”.
- “Casting couch”: The tell shelp that women in the industry, especipartner aidd actresses, are prescertaind for intimacyual favours by actors, originaters or straightforwardors in trade for roles in films and other opportunities to persist their nurtureers. Some witnesses originated video clips, audio clips and screensboilings of WhatsApp messages to back their claims. The rehearse is shrouded in euphemism. “‘Compromise’ and ‘adfairment’ are two terms which are very recognizable among women in Malayalam film industry,” the tell shelp.
- Online dangers: Several women and men tgreater the pledgetee that they were irritateed and trolled in online messages and social media posts. This trolling can be intimacyual in nature, where actresses acquire dangers of sexual attack and aggression aextfinishedside unrequested images in their inboxes.
- Contract publishs: Written condenses deficiency definite details about the nature of the scenes actors will be needd to carry out. Some actresses were quoted in the tell as saying they were asked to do intimacyupartner clear scenes they were unsootheable doing, and had not been alerted beforehand. Many women also do not get proper remuneration due to unclear condenses, the tell shelp.
Among its recommfinishations, the tell asks for the set upment of a judicial tribunal, which will function as a civil court and would permit women to file protestts.
The rulement has yet to set up such a tribunal, but it has createed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to see into a flood of novel allegations about past instances of intimacyual wrongdoing made by actresses chaseing the tell’s discloseation.
Flood of allegations
After the tell was unveiled, many more Malayali actresses came forward with allegations of intimacyual dangers and aggression. Among them:
- Actress Minu Muneer lodged intimacyual wrongdoing protestts agetst seven actors on August 27, including Mukesh, who is also a state legislator from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which rules Kerala. He has denied the allegations agetst him and claimed that Muneer previously asked him for money and tardyr tried to bdeficiencymail him. On August 27, local media quoted him as welcoming a see-thcoarse set upateigation and saying: “This group, which has been choosedly bdeficiencymailing me for money, has now turned agetst me at this opportune moment”. Jayasurya, another of the actors accparticipated by Muneer, has also denied the allegation.
- Sreelekha Mitra, an actress understandn best for her toil in Bengali cinema, accparticipated straightforwardor Ranjith Balakrishnan of intimacyual dangers in 2009. The police sign uped a case agetst Balakrishnan on August 26. Balakrishnan has claimed these allegations are inrectify, saying that he participateed with Mitra in the presence of a screenoriginater and two aidants, according to the Indian digital discloseation The News Minute.
The entire executive pledgetee of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), led by one of Malayalam cinema’s biggest superstars, Mohanlal, resigned as some members were themselves implicated in accusations of intimacyual wrongdoing.
The SIT, which has acquired an unredacted version of the Hema Committee tell, is now preparing for face-to-face intersees with the actresses who alleged dangers in the tell.
What’s next?
Activists, already frustrated with the rulement’s five-year procrastinate in making the Hema Committee tell disclose, are calling for the names of the alleged offfinishers identified by the panel of experts to be made disclose.
Devika shelp it was a “gross violation of the law of the land” to shield their identities, inserting that “it is not normal for the accparticipated to be protected in this way”.
She shelp more clarity was needed on how the tribunal recommfinished by the pledgetee would function, cautioning agetst a mechanism that could undermine other institutions that deal with intimacyual dangers protestts.
“Top-down structures erode the credibility of the ones that already exist,” she debated.
Since 2013, Indian law has needd every toilplace with more than 10 participateees to have an inside protestts pledgetee to insertress publishs of toilplace intimacyual wrongdoing. In rehearse, however, the carry outation of this law has been spotty.
In 2022, the Kerala High Court ordered film production hoparticipates to set up these pledgetees. According to Devika, some of the pledgetees are feeble and ineffective. But under the law, protestants can also apshow their allegations to dimerciless-level local protestts pledgetees.
Despite their flaws, inside and dimerciless pledgetees are usupartner more approachable for women than a top-down tribunal, Devika debated. “The tribunal is envisiond as a supra body”, outside the film industry, she shelp. “Some of us actupartner leank that you’re cutting off access to fairice. Fewer women will be probable to protest if such mechanisms are set up.”
The need to set up another tribunal despite existing mechanisms which are presumed to tackle cases of intimacyual crimes at the toilplace also lifts a wideer inquire, Devika shelp.
“As Indian citizens, how can we say that the existing law won’t protect women fair becaparticipate they toil in the cinema?”
The WCC has been posting what it debates are solutions and recommfinishations on their social media pages chaseing the tell’s free.
Beyond naming and shaming
“After the tell came out, the inquires have been: ‘Who is the offfinisher? Who are these men? Why are they being protected?’” shelp Nidhi Suresh, an Indian journaenumerate who covered the 2017 case in wonderful detail for The News Minute.
She make cleared that actresses who have come forward with disclose allegations chaseing the tell’s free have lost toil opportunities.
This was echoed by filmoriginater and WCC set uping member Anjali Menon. The Press Trust of India, a novels agency, quoted her saying: “It is real that we have phelp the price of losing toil opportunities when we spoke up, but over the last seven years, we have reliablely made our points and we now have immense aid from the media, the lterrible community and the disclose”.
Suresh tgreater Al Jazeera that she understood the hazards holdd. If names of alleged offfinishers are findlooked, the identity of victims could be effortless to discern too, she shelp. “If they are releasing the names of the offfinishers, it’s going to have to be done in a very reliable manner,” she shelp.
Either way, Suresh shelp that the shiftment that exploded after the Hema Committee tell and the subsequent allegations by other women was about more than fair naming and shaming offfinishers. What’s needed, she shelp, are structural changes to how the film industry treats women.
“One conversation that’s been happening a lot here is people have been comparing this shiftment to the Weinstein shiftment,” she shelp, referring to the shiftment that grew in 2017 when more than 80 women came forward, accusing Hollywood originater Harvey Weinstein of intimacyual misparticipate.
The Kerala film industry #MeToo shiftment is not fair about exposing intimacyual predators in the industry, she shelp, but reshaping how the industry is structured as well as how it treats women.
“This is about trying to releank protectedr toilspace culture”.
